ich bin zurückgekommen! (i’m back… from germany!)

fabrics from berlin and hamburg, germany

I’m home from the longest vacation I’ve ever had!
I just spent a month – solo – in Germany, taking a German language course. I had always dreamed of spending a semester abroad during college, but as an engineer I didn’t have enough flexibility in my coursework. I had taken three German classes during school, all just for fun, so when I graduated and had a wide open summer to myself, I knew what I wanted to plan.

It was my graduation present to myself: a mini study-abroad, a language immersion trip. I spent two weeks in Hamburg followed by two weeks in Berlin, with language courses every morning and exploring and live-language practice – “einen Kaffee, bitte!” – every afternoon. It was wonderful. So many new foods and sights and so many words to learn.

And this is shocking, but I managed to find quite a few fabrics during my adventure! Some are standard clothing-weight fabrics with definite plans in mind. And, of course, some are a bit more fun.

germany-themed fabrics from germany

I was lucky enough to find two German-themed fabrics that served as my main “souvenirs”. The top fabric features the Bremen town musicians: a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster featured in a Brothers Grimm fairytale and memorialized in Bremen by a tall bronze sculpture. My dad flew with me to Germany and we had a little “Germany trip prequel” in Bremen, where I fell in love with these little guys. They’re overly commercialized, but they’re so adorable. This fabric was made in Germany by the Westfalenstoffe brand, so it’s a truly German fabric.

The lower fabric is a stylized map of Berlin, printed on linen in the most gorgeous jewel tones. The fabric was designed and printed in Japan, but that is okay by me :) It is quite possibly the most expensive fabric I’ve ever bought, coming in at 19EUR/m. All the quilting-level fabrics were extremely expensive by my standards… good thing I was on vacation!

My favorite German saying that we learned in class: Geld spielt keine Rolle. Literally, “money plays no role”. Exercised in moderation, it was a good vacation motto for me (i tend to be too hard on myself!), although it took its toll on the weight of my luggage!

japanese fabrics from germany

I also bought some darling Japanese prints… who could say no to those elephants with apples and bright green birdy friends? And the little blue kerchief’ed bears remind me of my beloved ninja bear.

american fabrics from germany

These last two print fabrics are from the exotic land of “America”… but I couldn’t resist their bright colors. At the risk of sounding extremely boring: I’m planning on making a set of tea towels out of the spatula print, and they are going to be gorgeous.

Of course, I brought far more than fabrics home from Germany… I brought plenty of pictures and inspiration for new and wonderful things to make. So stay tuned, because I’ve got plenty of great things to share with you.

(and i promise to stop typing in german sometime soon.)